


Hanging By A Turtle

by CamsthiSky



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Family, Gen, Hurt Mikey, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Missions Gone Wrong, it's more of a fight than a mission but still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 06:33:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamsthiSky/pseuds/CamsthiSky
Summary: It happens almost too quickly. One moment Don has both feet on the ground, fighting some new wacko mutant trying to blow up the city, and the next? Wacko mutant does something Don can’t really process, and the ground is giving out beneath them.Wacko mutant gets away. Donnie and his brothers? Yeah, theydon’t.





	Hanging By A Turtle

It happens almost too quickly. One moment Don has both feet on the ground, fighting some new wacko mutant trying to blow up the city, and the next? Wacko mutant does something Don can’t really process, and the ground is giving out beneath them.

Wacko mutant gets away. Donnie and his brothers? Yeah, they _don’t._

They’re falling, Don realizes almost a second too late. The ground is crumbling before their very eyes. Don stumbles, can’t find his balance, can’t react fast enough. He can’t really see Raph or Leo, but he _does_ see Mikey, and Don’s heart _stops_.

Mikey isn’t moving. Mikey’s falling, but he isn’t moving.

Don’s diving before he even really thinks about it.

“Now’s not really the time to fall asleep, Michael!” Don yells over the noise of the sewer literally falling all around them. It’s loud, and Don’s voice is barely audible, but it’s not like an unconscious Mikey could have heard him anyways.

Don tries not to think about that.

“Gotcha!” Donnie cries out, just as his fingers wrap around Mikey’s belts. Just as he does, he throws his hand in the air, and looks up. A hand darts out and Don’s grabbing it immediately, recognizing it immediately.

Leo’s got a hold of his hand, and Raph’s got a hold of Leo by _his_ belt and his other hand is hanging onto a pipe sticking out of the broken floor. Raph had saved Leo, Leo had saved Donnie, and Donnie had saved Mikey. And Mikey—is unconscious.

“As much as I’d love to sit here all night,” Leo grunts, and his arms are trembling, and things finally settle around them, “could we please climb back up? Now, please.”

“You guys are too heavy,” Raph tells them grimly. “I don’t think I have the strength to flip all three of you up. Maybe if it were just two, but—not three. Sorry.”

Don eyes the pipe. “Plus, I’m pretty sure your handhold would give out if you tried that,” he says, grim enough that Raph’s looking up at the pipe, too. “Oh, man, why didn’t I wear the battle shell that could _fly_? I’m such an idiot.”

“You didn’t know, Don,” Raph grunts.

“Besides,” Leo pipes up with a smirk. His arms are still trembling, but he looks a little too confident for Don’s tastes. “What would be the fun in that? Gotta make these nights at least a little hard, right?”

Any other night, maybe Don would agree. He’s always liked a challenge, and his brain is big enough to think of a solution to a lot of their problems, to the point where sometimes it’s just like a puzzle, and he really _does_ like it. But tonight—

Tonight, Don is still holding an unconscious Mikey by his belts, and they’re dangling above a pit in the ground that could be miles deep with no obvious way up.

“Mikey’s down at the bottom, right?” Leo asks, suddenly. “Can he start climbing up?”

“And why’s he so quiet?” Raph wonders. “Is he okay?”

“He’s unconscious,” Donnie tells them.

“What?!” yells Raph. “How’d that happen?!”

“I don’t know!” Don says, starting to grow a little frantic. “I didn’t see it! I just caught him.”

“So what do we do now?” Leo asks, his playful tone turning worried. “Can you climb up while still holding onto Mikey?”

“No,” Don says, swallowing down his annoyance with himself. He’s barely hanging onto Mikey as it is, but if he were to try and shift Mikey up, there’s no guarantee that Don wouldn’t drop him, especially climbing with one hand. “No, I don’t think I can.”

“Well, we gotta do _something_ ,” Leo says, before glancing upwards. “Any ideas, Raph?”

Don looks up, too. Because when worst comes to worst, Raph is still their big brother. Their leader. He’s come through for them a lot over the years, and no matter how smart Donnie is, or how optimistic and leaderly Leo can act, Raph is the one they can look up to when things go bad.

Raph’s silent. Thinking, maybe. But they don’t have a lot of time. Don stays quiet anyways.

“Can you wake Mikey up?” Raph wonders after a moment. “If he’s awake, he can hang onto you while you climb up, right Don? Then you’ll have both hands.”

Donnie looks down at Mikey. Back up at Raph. Then he meets Leo’s gaze, who’s giving him the eye-equivalent of a shrug. Leo’s right. It’s worth a shot. And Raph’s right, too. With two arms, Donnie can do a lot more than just hang here.

“Mikey,” Donnie calls. No answer. He tries again. “Mike. Michael. Michelangelo. Time to wake up now, Mikey. Raph will cook you breakfast, or I’m sure Leo will let you draw on his shell again. And maybe, I’ll even let you look at the plans for the drill.” Nothing. Not even a peep. “Oh god, please wake up before we all fall to our deaths.”

“So much faith, Don,” Leo hisses.

“Hey,” Donnie says. “You’re the optimist, not me. I prefer knowing the true reality of our situation instead of tip-toeing around it, and in case you hadn’t _noticed_ , we’re swinging above a gigantic hole in the ground, and Raph is barely hanging on!”

“I am _not_ going to drop you,” Raph grits out.

“You can’t realistically hang there all night,” Donnie argues, hating himself more and more with each word, because he’s just telling the truth, but it’s the truth his brothers probably don’t want to hear. And yet, it’s all Don can do to cope. Look at the situation realistically and try to find a suitable way out.

“I can,” Raph says, eyes glinting, “and if I have to, I will.”

“No one’s letting go, Donnie,” Leo says, just as firm.

“Statistically, if Mikey doesn’t wake up—”

“’M awake,” a voice murmurs from below Donnie.

“Mikey!” Raph yells out happily, Leo just a beat behind him.

“Oh, Michael, you don’t know how much I was hoping to hear your beautiful, beautiful voice,” Don says, internally heaving a gigantic sigh of relief. “Now I can stop talking about how we’re all gonna die.”

“Donnie, seriously,” Leo sighs. “We’re going to be just fine.”

“Alright, I’ll drop it,” Donnie says. And he does.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” Mikey asks, his voice slurring sort of dangerously. Like he might fall back asleep any minute.

“We’re sort of in a pickle,” Leo says. “Could use your help getting _out_ of said pickle, if you’re interested.”

“You okay, Mike?” Raph calls down.

“Think so?” Mikey says, even though he’s still not really moving. Don still has a hold of his belts, and Mikey hasn’t so much as tried to look up to find his brothers, and _that’s_ a little troubling, because if there’s one thing that Donnie knows about Mikey, it’s that Mikey will always, _always_ reach out for his brothers, no matter what.

“Can you move?” Donnie asks. “Because if not, we’re sort of in trouble.”

Mikey’s quiet for a minute. Don watches as Mike’s hand twitches. Then his head. There’s a quiet hiss of pain, but then Mikey’s straightening as well as he can. “Yeah. I can move.”

“Okay,” Donnie says, making a mental note to check Mikey over the _moment_ they’re on solid ground again. “Okay, that’s good. Great. Do you think you could climb up and wrap your arms around my neck?”

Mikey tenses, and then says, “Yeah.”

It takes a long time. Almost too long. But again, Donnie holds his tongue the whole time Mikey tries to climb up Donnie, no matter how much he wants to say something, because it’s obvious Mikey is struggling. Don helps as much as he can, but with one arm, and the way his weight is being pulled down by gravity and Mikey, there isn’t a lot he can do.

Finally, Mikey’s able to wrap both arms around Donnie’s neck and he buries his face into Don’s shoulder. Donnie lets him. “Okay, Mikey, hold on.”

Mikey says nothing. Warning bells are constantly going off in Don’s head by now, so he just grits his teeth and looks up to meet Leo’s grim face.

“Ready?” Don asks. Leo nods. “Here goes.”

With both hands, it’s almost easy to pick his way up and over his brothers to safe ground, even with Mikey’s weight. It takes barely a minute before he’s stepping on Raph’s shoulders, grabbing the ledge of the ground that _hadn’t_ crumbled when the wacko mutant disappeared, and rolling forward (Mikey’s head carefully cradled) and away from the tremulous ground.

Leo and Raph are both there within seconds.

Don drags them a few dozen more feet from the edge, just in case.

That’s when he realizes his next problem.

“Mikey,” Don sighs. “You have to let go. I need to check you over.”

Mikey’s grip only tightens.

Donnie’s not really the best when it comes to hugs, or social interaction in general—no, that’s Mikey’s area of expertise—but this is his little brother, and Don’s not going to _not_ try. He looks to Leo for help, but Leo’s not looking at him.

Great.

“Mike, I really need to check your head. You might have a concussion.”

“’M not letting go,” Mikey tells him, sounding almost teary, and Don’s heart feels like it’s going to break. It’s not often Donnie gets so emotional like this, but hell, his baby brother is hurt. It makes him not want to let go, either, even if hugs are sometimes the hardest things.

(Hugging his brothers isn’t so bad, though, even if he won’t willingly admit that out loud.)

“Mike—”

“If I let go,” Mikey whispers, “I might float away. I don’t want to float away.”

Leo crouches down right next to Mikey, hand on running up and down Mikey’s shell. “Hey, Mikey. Do you really think your big brothers would let you float away? You know us better than that, right?”

One of Raph’s large hands curls around Don’s shoulders, and the other curls around Mikey’s trapping all three brothers in one of his hugs. Don can feel Mikey trembling slightly, so he says, “Mikey, seriously. We’re right here. And if you need to hold onto someone, Raph looks like he’s down to get cuddly.”

“I’m always down for cuddles,” Raph says, as serious as the grave.

Mikey sniffs softly and lets Don gently maneuver him into Raph’s lap. Donnie immediately starts checking Mikey’s vitals, feeling his head for any irregularities (there’s a knot on the back of his skull that Don’s going to need to keep an eye on, especially since Mikey was out for so long), and checking his pupils.

“A concussion for sure,” Donnie sighs. “He needs some painkillers, an ice pack, and some rest.”

“Home,” Raph urges.

“Yeah,” Don agrees, standing up. The rest of his brothers—sans Mikey, who’s still tucked up in Raph’s arms—follow suit. “We should go home.”

* * *

“I thought you weren’t supposed to sleep with a concussion,” Leo says, hours later.

Mikey is asleep on the couch, head on Raph’s lap, where Donnie can keep an eye on him. Raph has decided to pass his time knitting, while Donnie has started going over his plans for the drill his brothers have been begging him for.

Leo, on the other hand, has been in and out of the room. Don thinks he’s just restless, but doesn’t want to leave Mikey alone. Don knows the feeling.

“You can,” Donnie says, answering Leo’s question. “Mikey was awake and talking to us, and he was able to move, for the most part, so he’s okay to sleep. We just need to check on him every once in a while.”

Leo’s quiet then. Quieter than Don’s heard him in a while. Usually he’s busy quipping the day away. That, or skateboarding with Mikey. But he’s more serious than Donnie can remember him being for a long time.

He’s staring at Mikey.

“You know he’s going to be okay, right?”

Leo startles, whipping his gaze from Mikey back to Donnie. Then he hunches in on himself. “I know that.”

Raph looks up, then, too. “Mikey bounces back like no one else, Leo. Plus, Donnie gave him the all clear. Just a mild concussion. He’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah, I heard you the first time, thanks,” Leo mutters. “I do have ears, you know.”

“Then stop moping around,” Raph says. “You’re acting like he’s dying, or something.”

“Well, we almost did, didn’t we?” Leo says, slumping onto the couch on Raph’s other side.

Don pauses in looking over his schematics to stare at his younger brother—not by much, but by enough that it counts. Raph’s the oldest, but Don’s the second oldest, and one of his little brothers is sleeping— _hurt_ —and the other one is hurt in a different way.

Donnie swallows. “Is this about what I said earlier?”

Leo shrugs. “Kinda? You were right, though. Raph wouldn’t have been able to hold on forever, and if Mikey hadn’t woken up, we might have died. Or gotten seriously hurt.”

“Hey, that’s not like you,” Raph says, looking sort of grumpy. “If Mikey hadn’t woken up, one of us would have come up with something. We always do. Besides, Mikey _did_ wake up. So we’re good now.”

They’re not. Don can tell that Leo’s not even a little bit satisfied.

And he kind of gets it, a little bit. Raph’s not usually worried too much about the what-ifs. Not like Don and Leo kind of get stuck on. Mikey’s a lot like Raph, in that way. Neither tend to dwell too much on the past. They’re both more of a _focus on the present_ type of turtle.

On top of that, though—

“There’s something else,” Don says, blinking at Leo. “Come on, Leon. Spill.”

Leo sighs heavily, dramatically. “It’s just—I was sort of useless back there, you know? I mean all of us were to an extent, but me especially.”

Don rolls his eyes. “If you call useless keeping me and Michael from falling to our deaths, then sure. You were useless. Same way Raph was useless as he held onto the pipe. Same way I was useless holding onto Mikey when he couldn’t hold on himself.”

“Donnie’s right,” Raph says. “We saved each other, and we got out of there together. You weren’t useless, and frankly, I resent the fact that you’re sitting there talking about my brother that way. Leonardo ain’t useless in any way, shape, or form. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Leo cracks a smile.

“Who said Leo’s useless?” comes Mikey’s groggy voice from the couch. He lifts his head up and rubs an eye. “We need to beat someone up?”

Donnie snorts. “Oh no, I think Raph’s got this one, Mikey.”

Mikey blinks up at Raph. “Raphie?”

Raph winks down at his baby brother. “Don’s right. I got this. Go back to sleep, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Mikey says, already halfway there.

Don raises an eyebrow at Leo, challengingly. Leo raises his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, I get it. You guys think I’m awesome.”

Raph laughs a little, but he doesn’t deny it, and Don only smiles, going back to his schematics. Yeah, Don does think Leo’s awesome, but all of his brothers are pretty awesome, and Donnie would absolutely destroy the world for them.

Not that he’s going to tell them that.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to @taizi for encouraging me to write for this series


End file.
